REPORT: Political Persecution and Intersections of Violence against Women in Turkey: Stories of forced migrants

This
is a civic initiation and a pioneering report to document mass human rights
violations, discrimination, political persecution that recent immigrants from
Turkey to different countries and Europe have witnessed. This report focuses on
women witnesses of the current political persecution in Turkey. Following
her-story perspective this report presents a glimpse of mass human rights
violations that thousands are currently going through in Turkey from the lenses
of female survivors.

This
short report aims to:

To
underline massive extend of political persecution and human rights violations
in Turkey affecting thousands of people including women and children

To
integrate gender aspect to studies on torture and ill-treatment and violence
against women in Turkey under detention / imprisonment

To
voice the stories of forced migrants of Turkey to create better understanding
of their presence in Europe

Turkey ratified
the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment (hereinafter, the Convention against Torture) on 2 August 1988.
Upon ratification Turkey recognized the competence of the Committee against
Torture to receive and process individual communications under articles 21 and
22 of the Convention against Torture.

The state of emergency
introduced in Turkey on 15 July 2016 in the aftermath of the attempted coup.
Though emergency rule ended two years later, the Turkish parliament adopted a
law furthering many elements of emergency rule for three more years. In the
meantime, government abused fundamental freedoms such as dismissing thousands
of public servants, prolonged detention periods, extending powers to
government-appointed provincial governments or assigning trustees to thousands
of private institutions.

Figure 1. Freedom in the World Aggregate Score by Years

Source: Freedom House, 2019

In total,
there are 10,285 women and 2,982 children under 18 years old are behind bars in
Turkey. Current numbers of children stay beside their mothers in prisons are
780 (children under age 6). More
babies are born in prison since
Turkey continues to imprison pregnant women unlawfully. Prisons are overcrowded with an overall
jail occupancy rate of 124 % since 2016 (Hurriyet Daily, 2019).

Last but not least, since 2016 hundreds of families
from Turkey lost their lives in search of asylum through dangerous paths in
Western migration routes. Currently Turkey also pushes hundreds of Syrians and
asylum seekers from different countries forwards as a political move to
dangerous migration routes.

38 OUT OF EVERY 100 WOMEN ARE WITNESSING PHYSICAL OR SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN
TURKEY

Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of women is a
fundamental violation of human rights and is absolutely and unreservedly
prohibited under international law. In spite of the international legal
prohibitions on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or
punishment along with growing attention for the past three decades women’s
rights and the issue of gender-based violence has received, reality on the
ground provides few signs for optimism. Women and girls continue to face high
risks of becoming the victims of torture in many countries around the world,
including Turkey.

All of our respondents stated that they were not
provided access to basic human rights during detention and imprisonment period
including health service (when needed), food, sleep, water, sanitation, hygiene,
education, socialization opportunities.

All
respondents confirmed that their access to lawyers, right to be informed about
the charges against them were limited at differing levels. Presumption of
innocence and principle of individual criminal liability are constantly ignored.

Wide human rights violations
of political persecution address multiple opinion groups and thousands are
convicted with alleged crimes for being terrorist. Immoderate power and charges
are directed towards people even before their court or conviction. A pregnant
woman could be target without any right to defend herself since herself and her
sister was blamed of being terrorists.

All imprisoned
and detained respondents confirmed that when they are taken into custody or for
imprisonment, they were taken into entrance check points with groups of other
imprisoned women and subjected to whole body naked searches through commands “Sit
down-stand up. Cough”. Even visitors were abused with naked searches and
improper touching. This abuse included old, disabled or pregnant women without
any exception. Their requests to use aprons were rejected during searches.
Additionally other SGBV cases are recorded including, verbal, psychological,
sexual abuse and improper touching. Some respondents stated that several state
officers threatened them with sexual assault and rape. Şengül (37) tells how a
prosecutor threatened them:

Physical and psychological
violence is used widely as forms of violence can be considered inhuman and
degrading treatment to psychologically confront and humiliate prisoners. All
respondents confirmed verbal and psychological violence enmeshed with psychical
abuse in the form of shouting, humiliating, pulling, pushing was constant
during their custody and imprisonment. Some also experienced these violations
when visiting their relatives disregarding human dignity.

Abuses
on child rights appeared during our interviews as an additional topic, which
was not intended to be covered in this report. However, severity of abolishment
of child rights was very intense not to voice in our report. The reported
abuses towards children included, naked body searches during visiting their
families in prison, imprisonment of pregnant women and giving birth during
imprisonment, imprisonment of postpartum women, obscuring access to doctor, medication,
toys or play areas for children who are living beside their moms in prisons. Two
women among our respondents had their toddlers beside them during their
imprisonment time and one respondent was jailed when she was pregnant. Other
had children in their barracks during imprisonment and witnessed similar abuses
towards the rights of the child.

Political persecution and
violence against women triggers other forms of violence such as domestic
violence and communal violence in the form of social exclusion, stigma.
Negatively affecting people’s psychologies these processes caused huge damages
for families and children. Meryem (32) who is a survivor of domestic violence
that her situation shows how political persecution processes negatively affect
relationships and human psychologies. Her story as follows:

Immigration and asylum
literature shows us that immigration is a complex phenomenon driven by numerous
factors. We asked women about their decision of immigration to their current
countries of residence. Political persecution, human rights violations are indicated
as the major push factor for all respondents.

Gender has often an impact on the form of the torture
and other ill-treatment, its circumstances, its consequences, and the
availability and accessibility of reparation and redress.”(OSCE-ODIHR, 2019) Additionally,
women are reluctant to report violence due to inefficient responses from the
legal protection mechanisms or fear of further abuses.

In our report, we focused
mainly violence against women under detention, during imprisonment and when
visiting imprisoned relatives. We have directed questions in 6 different
categories targeting to acquire information on psychical, sexual,
psychological, social and economic categories of violence against women.
Additionally we have asked them about their feelings, future projections (details
can be found under Method section).

The
report puts forwards following suggestions:

Report
indicates that there is a culture of violence spreading in Turkey resulted by
political persecution. Torture and ill treatment should be evaluated and
responded through international human rights mechanisms accordingly.

Policies
should put gender-based violence against women as a form of torture and other ill
treatment on the agenda of states and shape the debate on this issue through
support from women rights bodies.

States should create platforms
where women’s rights organizations and anti-torture organizations can meet,
discuss and define common agendas and strategies.

States must take
measures to prevent violence against women, protect victims, investigate acts
of sexual and gender based violence and prosecute perpetrators and condemn such
acts within the scope of international rights and liabilities.

The human rights,
needs and safety of victims/survivors should be prioritized through
survivor-centered approach in the host countries.

Survivors
of violence against women need psycho-social support programs that are
specifically tailored for their needs.

Immigrants
are also at risk of being discriminated both by host societies and their
national populations in the countries that they seek asylum. Such risks should
be eliminated through multiple dialogs and protection mechanisms.